Mercy Trucks West Africa Project

Roy left Hexham on the 9th of January 2008. He then left Harpenden after packing the truck with equipment in the late afternoon of Thursday 10th.

Here is another update on Roy's epic journey to take a truckload of aid to Guinea Bissau.

Lee (the Good Samaritan guy) and I spent all Saturday morning running around hydraulic pipe repairers trying to get the right parts. We went to a DAF truck agent and found that DAF have stopped making this clutch part for this wagon because it is 10 years old (I felt a bit let down by DAF UK). We were able to buy another DAF clutch pipe so we attempted to fix it with this pipe by heat crimping the ends; however this was a slightly larger bore of pipe.
Because we have now been here for a few days we are starting to get to know people and many people are trying to help us. It is a time like this when you are stuck that you realise how good people are. One lady we spoke to earlier at a truck parts depot came back in the afternoon with her husband who is a truck mechanic. They came just in time as we got the new pipe fitted and they were able to help us to bleed the air out of the system. Then we realised that the connections were not holding the pressure and were leaking. It was starting to get dark by this time and there was nothing for it but to try and get an original DAF clutch pipe.

I rang Jeff my brother-in-law who has a wagon the same up near Newcastle in the North of England (where I just came from 2 days ago) and he kindly offered to take his pipe off to get us on our way (even though he would now be without a clutch pipe on his wagon). My wife Catherine went to collect it and started heading south, and Avis were good to us and gave me a very good deal to hire a car. So I set off driving back up north and rendezvoused with Catherine and the new pipe just above Doncaster.
700 miles later I was back in Dover by 3am, had a couple of hours sleep in the car and then started to repair the wagon. I had it fixed and all sorted out, Lee the Good Samaritan came and took me to take the Avis car back and then I was back in the wagon and heading for the Dover-Calais ferry by 1:00pm. I was quite scruffy by this time and was able to have a shower and a change of clothes and then had a good meal on the ferry.
Hooray, I am now in France and making good progress again. It had all been a great experience and adventure and through things like this you meet good people and make new friends. It was a real blessing that this special guy stopped to help, we have had a great experience and a good laugh and we are now great friends.

If you would like more information about the Guinea Bissau project and/or Mercy Trucks' other projects, please email info-uk@mercytrucks.org or phone 0870 126 9120.

Please consider partnering with us in this exciting project by sponsorship. A total of £1.00 per mile is needed to cover the costs for the 4,600 mile journey. If more funds are raised, this will help towards setting up the medical logistics project in West Africa.

Donations can be made in a number of ways:

• In the UK, At any branch of Lloyds TSB quoting the Mercy Trucks account number, 00875982 / Sort code 30-94-19
• Sending a Cheque made out to "Mercy Trucks" to: Mercy Trucks PO Box 73, Hexham, NE47 0YT
• Via Credit or Debit card, by clicking on the "DONATE NOW" button on the side of this page
• Via Bank transfer Mercy Trucks account details are:
  Mercy Trucks - Sort code 30-94-19 - Account number 00875982, Lloyds TSB Bank, Priestpopple, Hexham, NE461PA, England
• International Bank transfer Via IBAN IBAN number GB 33 LOYD 3094 1900 8759 82
• International Bank transfer Via BIG SWIFT SWIFT code number LOYD GB 21554

>Travelogue: Part 1
>Travelogue: Part 2
>Travelogue: Part 3
>Travelogue: Part 4
>Travelogue: Part 5
>Travelogue: Part 6
>Travelogue: Part 7
>Travelogue: Part 8
>Mileage Chart from UK to Guinea-Bissau